York Historic Environment Record

YORK SE6051NW ST HELEN'S SQUARE 1112-1/28/940 (North East side) 14/06/54 Church of St Helen GV II* Formerly known as: Church of St Helen STONEGATE. Parish church. Reconstructed 1857 on earlier foundations, incorporating C14 south arcade and C16 north arcade; restored and tower rebuilt in 1875. 1857 reconstruction by WH Dykes; 1875 restoration by W Atkinson. MATERIALS: magnesian limestone, with triple-span slate roof, stone coped at east end. PLAN: 4-bay aisled nave, continuous chancel with south vestry, and west end lantern tower. EXTERIOR: gabled east end has 4-light chancel window in 4-centred head beneath hoodmould, and 3-light window in 2-centred head to south aisle, both with quatrefoil tracery. North side not visible. South side on chamfered plinth articulated by gabled offset buttresses, the westernmost bay blank and narrowed to splayed corner bay: three 3-light windows with traceried heads in stilted 4-centred arches, and chamfered sill band. Embattled parapet. West door and window recessed beneath tall 2-centred double chamfered arch springing from 2-stage buttresses crowned by crocketed finials. Tudor arched doorway beneath flat hoodmould has carved spandrels, colonnette jambs and double doors of traceried panelling. West window is of 4 cinquefoiled lights with panel tracery in 2-centred head. Windows to aisles and splayed corner bay are of 3 ogee-arched lights beneath cusped tracery in 2-centred heads, and headstopped hoodmoulds. Parapet is embattled and traceried. Octagonal lantern, buttressed at each angle, has tiered trefoil-headed lights beneath ogee-arched mouldings, and embattled pierced parapet: to west, trefoil-headed niche beneath ogee hoodmould between miniature crocketed finials. INTERIOR: north arcade of double chamfered 2-centred arches, eastern arch 4-centred, on octagonal piers and responds: only easternmost pier has capital, a hollow chamfered C15 base reused. Continuous hoodmould on C19 stops, except for two early C16 ones flanking eastern arch, one representing the seated figures of God the Father and Christ receiving a soul, the other St Michael and the Angels. South arcade repeats the north, but the inner order dies into piers, the outer springs from moulded corbels. FITTINGS: include: C12 bowl font, arcaded beneath border of palmette mouldings, on C15 quatrefoil foot and C13 inverted capital base. Two C18 Benefaction Boards in North Aisle. Mayoral Board with Royal Arms of George III, dated 1802. STAINED GLASS: the church was the Glaziers' church, but medieval glass must have been lost when it was declared redundant and partly demolished in 1551. Fragments of medieval and later glass have been reassembled in the chancel south window; north aisle west window; south aisle east and south-west windows. MONUMENTS: include: north aisle: early C19 marble wall tablet to Theophilus Davyes Garencieres and family, by Taylor: wall monument to John Stow (d.1775) and family: floor slab to William (d.1789) and Rachel (d.18..) Brooke. South aisle: marble tablet with cornice to Ann Acaster (d.1834), by Flintoft: marble tablet with draped urn to Thomas Hartley of Heslington (d.1808), by Taylor: Gothick wall monument to James Atkinson (d.1839) and his widow, Ann (d.1840), by T Hayes of Beverley: inscribed brass plate in plain marble surround to Barbara and Elizabeth Davyes, 1667-1765 and 1669-1767 respectively, erected by their nephew Theophilus Davyes Garencieres: floor slabs to Tobias Conyars, Canon of York (d.1686), and to Elizabeth, wife of Richard Acklam, (1722/3), with shields of arms. (Bartholomew City Guides: Hutchinson J and Palliser DM: York: Edinburgh: 1980-: 157-58; Murray H, Riddick S & Green R: York through the Eyes of the Artist: York City Art Gallery: 1990-: 89; City of York: RCHME: The Central Area: HMSO: 1981-: 20-22). Listing NGR: SE6020551970